Pools of Fear
by Ranger indecisive
Summary: This is about Cassandra and her finding herself alone for the first time in the Burning Bridge. Fear is strong, Fear is selfish, Fear helps.


**Ok guys I would like to thank:**

**Guest and Dash99 who review this story, thank you very it was very supportive and I have to say I'm very sorry for not updating and I'm not sure if I replied to yours Dash99, I kind of can't reply to yours guest but thanks anyway, but if I didn't I'm sorry.**

**And also thank you Dash99 for following this story.**

**Thank you also to the 16 readers who appeared on my traffic graph, it was great to know people had read my story. **

**I'm very sorry to say but as some of you know I have been kind of dead for ages and I haven't update many of my stories, I could explain with many accuses but you would get bored so I'm not going to. But I have made a new story, I'm on 9 chapters so far so maybe you could check it out, it's called Falling Astray. **

**I'm not going to continue this story, instead I've written a chapter with is pretty much the aim of the story when I first came up with this story. **

**I'm going to delete the previous chapter but if, in the future, I get bored I may continue this story. This is now a one-shot of when Cassandra finds herself alone for the first time in book two.**

**I would like it if you reviewed this and please forgive me for any grammar and spelling mistakes.**

'Run!' screamed a voice.

Cassandra turned her head towards the screeching voice. Evanlyn. Her main had fallen off her horse and was clutching her ankle with both arms, silver tears streaming down her face.

'Cassandra, run!' she screamed again, waving her arms.

'I can't,' Cassandra's voice broke as she looked back at her friend. She slipped he foot from the stirrup and dismounted from her white mare. Cassandra ran as fast as she could towards her friend.

'No Cassandra leave me, go please go!' Evanlyn looked hurriedly behind her, 'they're almost here go!'

Cassandra looked again at her friend, 'Evanlyn,' she couldn't leave her friend now.

Suddenly a sound entered their ears. A deep rumbling sound that echoed through the tall oaks of the wood, and past the green leave as if they were never there. The sound of monsters, Wargals. The tall bear like animals rounded the bend and Cassandra panicked. Her foot slipped and she fell tumbling toward the muddy earth.

'Cassandra!' she heard her friend call as brambles and branches ripped her cloths and skin. Covered in mud she rose to see her maid struggle to move away from the ever nearing animals. Cassandra moved again to help her friend putting her arms underneath Evanlyn's shoulders and tried to drag her friend.

The grunting of the mindless beasts moved closers still and as Cassandra looked behind her in mindless panic she saw the creatures for real.

Brown, black and muddy, hunched painfully like deformed apes, on short stubby legs. Their red eyes gleamed with evil and a mindless killing motion.

For all her strength Cassandra screamed, a high pitched, ear shattering sound that made her move faster, her moves now loss of any sense, more of a _run and drag._

Cassandra hulled her friend, Evanlyn putting all her strength into helping but her ankle pain her. Sending shots of pain up her leg.

'Cassie,' she said pushing her friends hands away from herself, 'Go save yourself please.' Evanlyn's eyes watered with silver tears and nodded as Cassandra started to get up and walk away, then ran to her horse. Slid up into her leather saddle and rode off, looking back with tears streaming down her face.

Cassandra's eyes looked back at her friends as she saw her friend pluck a knife from her belt around her slim waist and hold it in a ready position. Cassandra knew it was hopeless, Evanlyn would never be able to hold off the mindless beasts, even if her ankle had not been hurt. But it was the last act of defiance. Evanlyn was brave, much braver then her.

She turned her head not wanting to see her friend being ripped to shreds, not wanting to see pain flash on Evanlyn's face, or to see her friends eyes turn glassy and empty. All she heard was a strangled scream.

Cassandra rode for hours, every hour she heard the fake scream of her friend and the real sound of the deep grunting.

The beasts scared her. They terrified her. They had no intelligence making them almost a blind man who's learnt no wisdom. They hunt. They kill. People die. And they don't care. They are mindless slaves bent to someone mad.

Finally the horrible sound die away into nothing, and she noticed for the first time she was lost. In the woods, in a different country, and she had no idea where she was and who she could trust. The sun was slow slipping over the western hills and the darkness of the night swam around her.

She looked around her trying to find a place to sleep, she was but no doubt a terrible camper. All around her were trees that screeched into the blackening sky and farmland. Corn and reads stood lifeless in their fields. At loss from there golden colour.

She looked around again and found nothing sensible or safe in any means and kicked her horse with her knee, going off at a trot again.

It was full dark when Cassandra came across the old barn house. Its wood rotting and creaking, the door left off its hinges. The window panes smashed as covered in a thick layer of grim. She entered the barn just as rain started to pour down and hit the ground. To her they sounded like screams.

She pulled the rains on the horse and led it over to a small railing, there she tied its rope, her small fingers fumbling in the cold. She walked into the barn hoping to find a blanket or rage.

Instead she found baggy trousers, a, what had probably been a, white shirt, some hunting boots and a sheepskin vest, all were much better than the riding dress she had been wearing. She had no cloak though so as she settled down on a stack of hay, in a shabby corner, the wind bit at her making her thin body shiver.

Cassandra sat there as sleep evaded her. Every time she closed her eyes a sound would make her jump, even the quite sounds that she barely heard made her awake and fearful.

Cassandra clutched her legs tightly to her chest, burying her face in the gap, hoping to block out the howling wind sounds of the night. She wrapped her arms around her ears, her knuckles shining white. Her blond hair, now limp and missing of its normal natural shine, blew in the wind, wild and messy like a wolf's.

She tried to scream, to escape from the nightmare that surrounded her, but the sound that freed itself was barely a croak. A hollow squealing croak. A sound that emptied all the air out of her lungs. A sound that was meant to help, but hurt. A deep hurt that made water swell up in her eyes. That made raindrops cascade down her pale face.

She now knew fear. But not as a friend. It was an enemy's sword. It's cold blade twisting hard into her soul. Dominating her. Its pools of black running through her, keeping her awake. Making her heart pound like a kettle drum. She wondered if anyone could hear her. But no one was there to hear her strangled cries.

Fear made every noise an avalanche. Sliding towards her. Making goose bumps on her soft pale skin. Making her hair sprig up wildly. Creating a strong sense in the back of her mind. Keeping her away. Retrieving her from sleep. From the arms of the pretty white like trying to cuddle her. Soothing her. Singing angles songs to her.

In the end her imagination got the better of her sense. Fear's strong sense of loneliness drilled deep into her. Its clawing hands shaking her heart. Squeezing her so tight she could barely breath.

She felt unwanted. Alone and lost. She felt tiny compared to the world of nightmare surrounding her. The world she thought she knew so well. The world she had been happy in, from the short time she had been in it. Yet her years felt like century's filled with regret and sadness. She forget what happiness was like. It was nothing. A distant memory or feeling.

Emotions crashed around her. They fought a one sided war. Nothing was stronger than fear. Nothing ever. That's what she thought anyway. She felt nothing but fear. Fear pulling her. Fear pushing her. Depressing her soul.

She feared for herself. For nothing but herself. Fear made her selfish. Fear created an alone feeling. Like she was the only human felt. There was no one else. So no one else mattered. They hadn't stopped fear. They hadn't stopped loneliness. They hadn't stopped anything she was experiencing. Why hadn't they? Because they didn't care.

She cuddled herself. Trying to warn off her new enemy. But fear wouldn't leave. He had gone so far and he never left. He was only trapped behind a wall. She had opened the door to that wall. She had created the black hole inside her. Fear just helped. Fear always helped. He was kind like that. Always helping. Making them understand him.

Cassandra sat in the barn, on top of hold hay stacks, as rain pelted down and wind howled outside. As the shadows moved and danced. As she clutched to the hope that the nightmare would end soon.

**I found that ending rubbish… please review.**


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